Wanderlust Heart (18+)

64

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"You need to stay another night for closer observation and you need to get weekly checkups at your doctor's office, but other than that, you're good to go, Ms. Castillo! Your brain function is one-hundred percent, your kidneys have improved immensely, your talking is back to normal, your walking is just a bit shaky but that's normal since you've been bedbound for eleven months. Congratulations," the nurse, Amy, smiled and I thanked her as Matteo rubbed circles on my skin with his thumb.

"Are you still a little foggy on details?" Willow asked and I shrugged, "Doctor Romani told me that I made up fictional people and scenarios in my brain whilst in the coma to keep me going. He said it's common in long-term comatose patients. I've rewired my brain to remember that Ezra and Freya are fake. A figment of my imagination that I made up to keep myself from dying mentally. You are real and here with Stefan. Gino is real and here with Benny. Matteo is real and here with me. Matteo only left for a day. He never cheated. He never went psycho on me. He never hurt me. He never died."

"I'm never going to do any of those things either," Matteo smiled before his phone rang and he walked away for a bit to answer it.

Gino looked at him once Matteo wore a stern look on his face and Matteo hung up, "The cartel needs their shipment by next week. Why hasn't it been scheduled?"

"Shit, I forgot to tell Mrs. Ramos to schedule it. I'll call her now," Gino said and walked out of the room to call her. Matteo walked over beside me again as Stefan and Benny argued in the back over my bag of chips I didn't eat.

"I deserve it, I haven't eaten in two hours!" Stefan argued and Benny rolled his eyes, "Well, I haven't eaten in three! They're mine!"

Stefan grabbed the bag from Benny's hands and Benny huffed impatiently, throwing himself at Stef and knocking them both onto the ground. Gino sighed and pinched the bridge of his cheek as he threw a dollar the boys, "One of you go get another bag of chips and stop arguing over it!"

Stef grabbed the dollar and got up before Benny tripped him and yelled, "That's my boyfriend's dollar! Therefore, it's mine!"

Stef grabbed Benny's face in his hand and pushed it towards the wall, "Over my dead body!"

"I will make that happen, fucker!" Benny yelled and Willow laughed as she threw another dollar, "There! Now you both have dollars and this bag of chips is Sam's. Now fuck off, both of you."

"Thank you!" They squeaked and ran out of the room whilst we all laughed at their immatureness. Matteo picked up the bag of chips and sat it on the table beside me as he brushed my hair out of my face. He frowned down at me, "You're burning up. Are you hot?"

"I'm a little cold," I said and he checked the thermostat before walking out of the room with a serious look on his face, instantly making me concerned. Willow sat up more alert once she saw the expression on his face. She looked at me, "Are you okay?"

Before I could answer her question, Matteo came back in with the doctor. The doctor smiled at me and came over to take my temperature. He swiped his thermometer across my forehead and frowned lightly at it, "Your temperature is one-hundred and two degrees. Do you feel okay?"

I nodded, not wanting to talk about anything in front of Willow and Matteo. I don't want pitied looks or looks of guilt from thinking it was their fault. The doctor noticed my discomfort and turned to look at the two people closest to me, "Can we have some privacy? There are some things I'd like to discuss with Ms. Castillo here."

Matteo looked at me as if silently asking if it was okay to leave. I nodded at him with a small smile and he nodded back as he quietly motioned for Willow to follow him out. Once they shut the door behind them, doctor Romani turned back to me and gave me a reassuring smile, "It's okay, take your time."

I nodded, sucking in a sharp breath.

"I haven't... eaten anything... I kind of can't," I said quietly, fiddling with my fingers and he nodded, "Can you tell me why you can't? Is it gross or can you just physically not chew?"

I shook my head in disagreement, "No, I can't... I can't swallow anything. It doesn't hurt it's just like... I can't. I don't know how else to describe it."

He nodded as he thought for a moment, "Will you stand up for me for a second? I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions and I want you to answer them to the best of your ability, okay?"

I nodded, my stomach churning from nerves as I stood up and stumbled a bit. He grabbed my elbow and stabled me before I hit the wall and I blew out a breath as I stood up as straight as I could, ignoring the slight weakness in my left leg.

"Okay, walk a couple of steps in a straight line for me," he instructed and I nodded as I did so to the best of my ability. I turned to face him and he continued, "Does your head hurt?"

"I've had a pretty bad headache since I woke up but I thought it was normal and the nurse who checked my brain function said it was normal," I replied quietly again.

"Are you able to talk loudly?" He asked and I felt my face heat up, "If I do I stutter a lot... it's weird." He chuckled and shook his head, "It's not weird. Does your face feel, for a lack of a better word, weird?"

I nodded, "When a smile it feels a little weird but I didn't think anything of it. Is that bad? Am I okay?" He motioned for me to sit on the bed so I walked, or limped, back to the bed and looked up at him, expectantly.

"I'm going to order a head C.T. and then we'll go from there, but to be quite blunt with you, it sounds like sometime during your coma you experienced a stroke which would cause a numbing feeling in the face, difficulty walking, speaking, and swallowing. A headache would indicate it happened recently so we just want to be sure everything is okay. Don't worry though, we're going to take care of it."

Fuck.